Blog

Patriotic Millionaires Profiled in the Boston Globe

This week, three members of the Patriotic Millionaires were profiled in a feature in the Boston Globe. Arnold Hiatt, Woody Kaplan, and Phil Edmundson talked with the New England paper about their support for a Massachusetts ballot initiative that would raise taxes on wealthy residents and use those taxes to help fuel infrastructure investment.

They are the rich, but don’t you dare call them filthy or fat cats, if for this reason only: They want to pay more in taxes.

This isn’t guilt. This isn’t even rhetoric. These millionaires are putting their money where their mouths are and backing a ballot petition to raise state taxes on themselves — people who earn more than $1 million a year.

These deep pockets believe they should carry a heavier burden so government can do more.

“It’s time for us to return to where we once had been before taxes were demonized and government was demonized,” said Arnold Hiatt, former chief executive and chairman of the shoe company Stride Rite.

Hiatt was among the first to sign the petition, which was certified by the attorney general earlier this month. A coalition of labor unions, religious organizations, and liberal advocacy groups is behind the measure, which could bring an estimated $1.3 billion a year into the state’s coffers. But let’s be real here. It’s easy for them to ask someone else to pay higher taxes.

It’s hardly a tidal wave, but as the gap between rich and poor widens, more members of the upper class — from Warren Buffett to Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Jeb Bush — want to close loopholes that benefit the wealthy. There’s even a group called the Patriotic Millionaires with 200 members, including a dozen in Massachusetts, who are pushing for the same thing.

Facebook

Proud “traitors to their class,” members of the Patriotic Millionaires are high-net worth Americans, business leaders, and investors who are united in their concern about the destabilizing concentration of wealth and power in America. The mission of The Patriotic Millionaires organization is to build a more stable, prosperous, and inclusive nation by promoting public policies based on the “first principles” of equal political representation, a guaranteed living wage for all working citizens, and a fair tax system:
1. All citizens should enjoy political power equal to that enjoyed by millionaires;
2. All citizens who work full time should be able to afford their basic needs;
3. Tax receipts from millionaires, billionaires and corporations should comprise a greater proportion of federal tax receipts.

Stay informed.

About

The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net worth Americans who are committed to building a more prosperous, stable, and inclusive nation. The group focuses on promoting public policy solutions that encourage political equality; guarantee a sustaining wage for working Americans; and ensure that millionaires, billionaires, and corporations pay a greater percentage of taxes.